correspondent richard engel for the first time since he and his production team escaped from kidnappers in syria. they were ambushed after crossing the country from turkey last thursday. >> as we were moving down the road, a group of gunmen just literally jumped out of the reese and bushes on the side of the road. probably about 15 gunmen. they kept us blindfolded, bound, we weren't physically beaten orator toured. a lot of psychological torture. threats of being killed and they made us choose which one of us would be shot first. when we refused they were there were mock shootings. as we were driving along the road the kidnappers saw this checkpoint, started a gunfight with it and would of the kidnappers were killed. we climbed out of the vehicle and the rebels took us. >> nbc news said there was no claim of responsibility. no contact with the captors and no request for ransom during the time the crew was missing. of course, the entire nbc family is tremendously relieved that richard and the rest of our colleagues are safe. >> richard, as you know, is widely respected for his reporting around th